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Latest News On One Click

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:17:05 GMT

Breaking News Summary

Police Officer Assaults Woman In Cell Causing Severe Injuries

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:02:30 GMT

A policeman is facing the sack after he was caught on CCTV throwing a woman into a cell, badly injuring her. The footage also shows Sgt Mark Andrews dragging Pamela Somerville through Melksham police station in Wiltshire. Ms Somerville, 59, was arrested in July 2008 after being found asleep in her car. Her treatment left her with facial injuries and needing hospital care. Ms Somerville said: "I thought I was going to die, by people that you trust. You can't imagine it. They're the people that you trust, so who do you trust after that?" Andrews has been suspended on full pay since his conviction. One Click Note: Watch the video. It's horrific. Certain sections of the British police force are simply taxpayer funded thugs in uniform. Nonetheless Can we all please applaud PC Webb who reported her colleague instead of holding his victim down for him.
BBC News

Shield Laws, WikiLeaks & The Public's Right To Know

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:52:44 GMT

Underneath the radar screen of the average American citizen, a legislative battle is going on for what is called a "Federal Shield Law." This is legislation that would "protect journalists from having to reveal anonymous sources when challenged by prosecutors in federal court." Those opposed to the bill are using the Wikileaks Affair as a focal point for renewed opposition to the Shield Law. It will be remembered that in July 2010 Wikileaks published on line tens of thousands of Defense Department documents, along with combat videos, concerning the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a sign of the superficiality of our politicians and the vested interest orientation of American news organizations and their journalists that they have seriously misinterpreted the importance of the Wikileaks Affair. This is not about who is or who is not a "real" journalist. It is about the status and future of what is suppose to be an "open" society wherein people are accurately informed about decisions and policies that actually or potentially impact their lives. It is about the right to know and the right not to be misled.
Lawrence Davidson, MWC News

Julian Assange/WikiLeaks/CIA: The Smear Campaign

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:49:10 GMT

Truth - through source materials - is what WikiLeaks is all about. Truth is what WikiLeaks has been peddling. Truth is what the powers that be want to stop. John Young of Cryptome has a collection of absolutely ludicrous 'forged' 'leaks' supposedly from WikiLeaks that show how clumsy these spooks can be. Tina Brown's Daily Beast is one of three sites conducting a systematic smear campaign against WikiLeaks - and who have now escalated into a smear campaign against Assange himself. Tina Brown's organisation has a number of uncomfortable ties with the Hoover Institution, Condi Rice, Tony Blair, and other war hawks. Daily Beast are also rather notorious at this point for twisting and plagiarising. They obviously can't control their 'rank and file'. What You Do: Stay on track. Don't be na�ve. And don't be silent. Do not take mainstream articles at face value. And absolutely do not take mainstream headlines at face value. Do not pass on spurious articles with uncorroborated stories to friends or anyone. Remember: the powers that be are counting on you being stupid. So don't be stupid. Don't worry about Jules Assange. He can take care of himself. Worry instead about the truth.
Information Release, Rixstep

Nepal Suspends Swine Flu Vaccine Due To 'Complications'

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:46:33 GMT

Nepali government has suspended the import and use of over 2.7 million pandemrix vaccines manufactured by a global company for protecting people from influenza - A/H1N1, generally known as swine flu. According to Sunday's Republica daily, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) decided to immediately suspend import of pandemrix vaccines on the basis of its intra-ministry technical panel's recommendations following reports of complications. Some A/H1N1 flu patients have reportedly suffered symptoms of neurolepsy disease after receiving pandemrix vaccines manufactured by the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) -- a global pharmaceutical firm -- in some European countries. In the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden, according to Dr Laxmi Raj Pathak, spokesperson at the MoHP, some A/H1N1 flu patients, who received GSK-pandemrix vaccines, have suffered numbness while moving hands, legs and tongues.
Xinhua News Agency

Toothless Disgraced European Medicines Agency Puts Us All In Danger

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:44:13 GMT

According to a Panorama programme on Avandia a number of experts now believe that the system set up to test all drugs before they come to market and to monitor them afterwards is seriously flawed. Another concern is how little both doctors and patients are told, even when dangers do show up. It's now clear that the drug regulator in Europe (the European Medicines Agency), which licensed Avandia for the UK ten years ago, was worried about a heart attack risk even then. But this was never made clear to patients and the trial requested by the agency to test specifically for heart safety took nine years to report. The first public warning about Avandia came three years ago when American cardiologist Dr Steven Nissen analysed studies that the drug company - GlaxoSmithKline - had carried out but mostly not published. Many critics have concentrated on the way GlaxoSmithKline has not revealed risks when they showed up. "We have a legacy of clinical trials which are flawed because of conflict of interests. Doctors should be sceptical about the evidence base they rely on to treat patients," said Dr Godlee of the BMJ. It's scandalous that the UK's regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory-Agency, never went public on a secret decision it made two months ago that Avandia should be withdrawn. And the silence of the European Medicines Agency over its concerns is another example of how patients and doctors are kept in the dark.
Jerome Burne, Daily Mail

Is GSK's Deadly Avandia Drug A Risk Worth Taking?

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:40:50 GMT

We're in the grip of a diabetes epidemic. The NHS spent more than half a billion pounds on medication for it in 2009. Patients trust that these drugs are safe, but does one come with a hidden cost to health? Shelley Jofre investigates the rise and fall of Avandia, until recently one of the UK's best-selling diabetes drugs, and asks whether the medicines' regulator is putting the interests of the drugs industry before patients. Watch Panorama tonight: BBC1, BST 8:30pm.
Information Release, BBC Panorama

NIH Director To Open XMRV Retrovirus Conference

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:39:07 GMT

Even bigger news on the XMRV/Murine Leukemia Related Virus front: Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (overseeing an annual budget of ~$31+ Billion) will be giving the opening workshop at the 1st International XMRV conference. He will be joined by Stuart LeGrice, head of the Center of Excellence in HIV/AIDS and cancer virology at the National Cancer Institutes, who was famously quoted in the Wall St. Journal last October: �NCI is responding (to XMRV) like it did in the early days of HIV� Given the early prevalence rates in healthy blood donors of 3-7% cited by Dr Harvey Alter (discoverer of the Hep-C virus), this ultra-high-level attention is perhaps not surprising. Plus there is the element of potential scandal, since ME/CFS patients have been complaining of profound viral symptoms (and dropping dead from viral cardiomyopathies and rare lymphomas) for decades � while being derided as hypochondriacs. With the personal attention of the NIH director, will research funds be prioritized to XMRV/MLV research and clinical trials?
Information Release, XMRV Global Action

ME/CFS Woman Suicidal As In-Home Treatment Refused

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:34:50 GMT

Perth chronic fatigue syndrome sufferer Theda Myint's health has deteriorated to the point where she was considering suicide but repeated pleas for an in-home pain relief treatment have been knocked back, her mother said. The 34-year-old Willetton woman has been battling a form of myalgic encephalomyelitis, better known as chronic fatigue syndrome, for the past 10 years. Her condition has worsened so dramatically in the past two months that her mother, Carol Adams, fears for her life. "She is so suicidal with these headaches, she has a migrane every day. She can't talk at the moment because it hurts too much, she can't communicate with us, she can't write," Ms Adams said. Theda was admitted to Fremantle Hospital's acute pain clinic for 10 days in late June, where she was put on intravenous therapy and added to a waiting list for the chronic pain clinic on her discharge from hospital. The IV treatment is one Ms Adams has been fighting for Theda to access from her home for the past three years. It was approved by Theda's current GP. "The pain clinic has offered help but it means going in for a whole morning and being interviewed by four people, but I have to explain that she cannot go into the hospital. She's so sensitive to noise at the moment that her entire room's closed up all the time." In a letter emailed to Health Minister Kim Hames on May 20, Ms Adams explained that trips to hospital were often torturous for Theda and renewed her plea for an IV treatment at home, saying her daughter was "being punished because her very severe illness does not fit into the normal boxes".
Katherine Fenech, WA Today

UK Charities Say Coalition Government Sickness Benefit Reforms Cruel & Unworkable

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:24:27 GMT

Charities are being overwhelmed by evidence showing the assessment to be inaccurate and often unfair to the nation's most vulnerable people. The assessment is too focused on physical capability, meaning that people with serious mental health issues, learning disabilities and fluctuating health conditions are often marked as fit to work. Independent assessors have not been sufficiently trained to recognise the full range of disabilities, causing people dealing with serious health conditions to be reported as work ready. Matthew Lester, Work and Learning Director of Papworth Trust says that "While we back the government's aim to sort those who can work from those who can't, it is crucial that those genuinely unable to work continue to get the support they need. The current process causes massive uncertainty and stress for those already struggling with their health." There are twenty two organisations in the coalition including MIND, the MS Society and Remploy. They met in London on 28th July and are now submitting evidence to Professor Harrington's review. For anyone concerned about the Work Capability Assessment, please contact Papworth Trust on 0800 952 5000 option 2, Monday-Friday 9am-4pm.
Information Release, Papworth Trust

Class Action To Be Launched Over Vaccines Containing Pig Products

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:04:54 GMT

A consumer rights group may sue the government for failure to inform the public about pig enzymes used to make a meningitis vaccine intended for Muslim pilgrims, an official said Friday. Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation chairman Marius Widjajarta said Friday that the group would gather support from the public and the media and file a class action lawsuit against the Health Ministry and the Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM). �They have violated the 1999 Consumer Protection law and the 2008 Public Information Law, which guarantee the public and consumers the right to be informed about safety and the details of a product�s ingredients,� Marius said. The MUI said that the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine contained traces of pig enzymes, while the two other do not. The edict has been challenged by some Muslims scientists, who believe that both Glaxo and Novartis obtained their seed vaccine stock between the 1960s and the 1980s from overseas research institutes. International academic journals say that during that period, the research institutes produced seed stock using the Mueller-Hinton medium and thus �came into contact� with pig enzymes. Lili C. Wahid, a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said that the Health Ministry, the BPOM, Novartis as well as the MUI had been skirting the issue.
The Jakarta Post

Flying The Flag; Faking The News

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:03:07 GMT

Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, is said to have invented modern propaganda. During the First World War, he was one of a group of influential liberals who mounted a secret government campaign to persuade reluctant Americans to send an army to the bloodbath in Europe. Instead of propaganda, he coined the euphemism "public relations." Of course, the good news is that false realities (such as the Iraq War, the tobacco industry, the British economy has a deficit of billions, the Ed Milibank 'genuine alternative' as leader of the UK Labour Party et al) often fail when the public trusts its own critical intelligence, not the media. Two classified documents recently released by WikiLeaks express the CIA's concern that the populations of European countries, which oppose their governments' war policies, are not succumbing to the usual propaganda spun through the media. For the rulers of the world, this is a conundrum, because their unaccountable power rests on the false reality that no popular resistance works. And it does.
John Pilger, Truthout OpEd

Pentagon Refused To Investigate Top Secret Child Pornography Buyers

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:01:10 GMT

A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show. New Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by The Upshot through the Freedom of Information Act show that DCIS investigators identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who had purchased child pornography online. Astonishingly, nine of those had "Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information" security clearances, meaning they had access to the nation's most sensitive secrets. All told, 76 of the individuals had Secret or higher clearances. But DCIS investigated only 52 of the suspects, and just 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. The vast majority of those investigated, including an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army and an official in the office of the secretary of defense, were never charged. On top of that, 212 people on ICE's list were never investigated at all.
John Cook, Upshot

Canada - $115 Million Lawsuit Launched Against G20 Summit Police

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:57:31 GMT

TORONTO � Two Torontonians are launching a $115-million class-action lawsuit against police on behalf of everyone detained during the G20 protests in July. Miranda McQuade and Mike Barber, who were both arrested during the Summit, are suing on behalf of 1,150 people who were detained. The statement of claim filed Thursday names the Toronto Police Services Board, the Attorney-General of Canada and the Regional Municipality of Peel Police Services Board as co-defendants. "The wholesale violation of civil liberties which occurred during the G20 must be addressed by the courts to preserve our democracy,� said lawyer David Midanik in a statement. �These violations will escalate unless and until people are willing to stand up for their rights in a court of law.� The stated goal of the lawsuit is �to deter the defendants and any other public authority from acting in a manner which arbitrarily limits the democratic and constitutional rights of the people.� The statement of claim accuses the defendants of �assault, battery, abuse of power, abuse of process, false arrest, false imprisonment, infliction of mental suffering, invasion of privacy, trespass, abuse of public office, harassment and intimidation.� QMI Agency's requests for comment from the co-defendants were not immediately returned.
Sheena Goodyear, QMI Agency, cnews

Disgraced CPS To Review Case Of Man Allegedly Killed By Police At G20 Summit

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:50:57 GMT

The Home Office pathologist criticised for suggesting the newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack during the G20 protests in 2009 has been suspended from practice for three months. The disciplinary ruling imposed by the General Medical Council on Dr Freddy Patel came after he was found guilty of misconduct or "deficient professional performance" in three earlier autopsy cases. The Crown Prosecution Service subsequently announced that its lawyer reviewing evidence in the Tomlinson case would now "consider the GMC's findings". Tomlinson died after being struck and shoved to the ground by riot police during protests in the City of London in April 2009. Patel was the first pathologist to examine his body. Patel said Tomlinson died of a heart attack, implying that his death was due to natural causes. A second examination contradicted that finding, suggesting instead that the newspaper vendor had died from internal bleeding. In July Keir Starmer QC, the director of public prosecutions, announced that no charges would be brought against any police officers. The latest CPS move stops short of suggesting it will reopen the whole file into Tomlinson's death.
Owen Bowcott, The Guardian

Access To Justice Must Not Be Left To The Whim Of UK Coalition Government

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:47:43 GMT

In recent years, we have become all too familiar with crass ads run by claims companies and lawyers trying to drum up cases run on "no win, no fee", or conditional fee agreements (CFAs), to use the technical term. So far, such arrangements have been largely restricted to routine accident claims; however a new paper from the free-market thinktank the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) proposes that legal aid be scrapped in crucial areas of legal advice � clinical negligence, actions against the police, education and housing disrepair. The idea advanced by his group is that reformed CFAs should take the place of public funding. Whatever the reasons for the condition of legal aid, it's unlikely CFAs are the magic solution. I offer two reasons. Firstly, compensation claims make for a tiny fraction of what comprises legal aid; �28.8m out of a �2.1bn budget. That's a lot of money, but it's only 1.3% of the budget. If legal aid is "failing", then "no win, no fee" isn't the answer. Secondly, any self-respecting, ambulance-chasing "no win, no fee" lawyer is going to run a mile from the kind of claims that make up "legal aid". There is no money in it. Let's take the example of someone who has been roughed up by the police, maybe an anti-war protester, maybe a drunk with a long list of previous convictions. An insurer isn't going to touch these cases with a bargepole. Legal aid provides an important mechanism to hold the powers-that-be to account and access to justice should not be subject to the whim of market forces.
Jon Robins, The Guardian

Five Jaw-Dropping WikiLeaks Archive Stories Begging For International Attention

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:13:57 GMT

While most media outlets and bloggers alike are seemingly content to wait for Wikileaks to unveil a second batch of documents -- roughly 15,000 in all -- about the Afghan war in the days ahead, other important materials are waiting for intrepid reporters and researchers to wade in and make something of the information. While the chilling �Collateral Murder� video and the gargantuan Afghan War Diary have, quite rightly, garnered a tremendous amount of attention for Wikileaks.org this year, the site has long offered much more in the way of classified, shadowy or otherwise unavailable material from public and private sources. It remains a relatively untapped or at least undertapped treasure trove for journalists, bloggers and academic researchers willing to put in the time and effort. For example: Those counterinsurgency (COIN) manuals, insider information from the CIA, foreign government documents, corporate documents such as detailing the secret rituals of Masons and Mormons et al, to name but a few.
Nick Turse, AlterNet

Three More Babies Killed By Measles Vaccine

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:05:23 GMT

Three babies died within hours after they were vaccinated against measles under Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) at Kalikapur Community Health Clinic of Guabaria union in the district's Hizla upazila early yesterday. The victims were identified as Toma, daughter of Profulla Dhali; Tisha, daughter of Pancham Kolu; and Pranto, son of Anil Kolu. Later at home, the mothers found the babies drowsing. Soon, the ten-month-olds went into convulsion and started vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. The mothers rushed the ailing three to Hizla Upazila Health Complex where the infants were given initial treatment. Around 2:30am yesterday, Toma breathed her last. Pranto and Tisha were referred to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital after their condition deteriorated but both died on the way to the hospital, said their mothers. Upazila Health Officer Shuvangkar Baroi admitted that the three died after taking EPI vaccines.
The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Constant Misprescribing Of Antipyschotics For Children Tantamount To Child Abuse

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:50:55 GMT

A "must read" front page article by New York Times reporter, Duff Wilson, encapsulates the plight of children who fall into the hands of irresponsible doctors who prescribe dangerous toxic drugs to control behavior-not for any medical justification. The article describes the plight of Kyle Warren, a young boy who, at 18 months was prescribed Risperdal, a powerful antipsychotic drug that had been approved only for adults with schizophrenia or acute manic episodes. However, by age 3, he was on a regimen that included 5 psychotropic drugs--including Risperdal, Prozac, two sleeping pills, and a drug for so-called attention-deficit disorder. The prescribed drugs transformed him from a rambunctious healthy child into a drooling, sedated, obese, "shell." Kyle is one of at least 500,000 American children caught in the clutches of professionally incompetent, irresponsible doctors who betray their medical responsibility to "first, do no harm." The misprescribing of antipsychotics for children is tantamount to child abuse. A contributing factor is that American doctors can legally prescribe any FDA-approved drug for unapproved uses-including to preschoolers-without any special training about the drug's risks....
Vera Hassner Sharav, AHRP

Class Action Launched Over Lyme Disease That Australian Health Authorities Pretend Doesn't Exist

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:48:09 GMT

A SYDNEY woman will launch a class action against New South Wales health authorities after autopsy results showed her husband was riddled with a disease the Health Department says does not exist in Australia. The results from Karl McManus, 44 - who died in July after being bitten by a tick while filming the television show Home and Away in northern Sydney - indicate he had bacteria from Lyme disease in his liver, heart, kidney and lungs. Tissue samples will now be sent to the University of Sydney and to laboratories in the US for more testing. ''If there is duplication of results, the government cannot dispute that Lyme exists in Australia,'' his wife, Mualla Akinci, said. Ms Akinci has already garnered support from two other sufferers and hopes more people join the class action. She also plans to sue Hornsby Hospital, where her husband spent several weeks before his death, and will appeal a decision by the Health Care Complaints Commission not to investigate his treatment there.Kate Benson, Brisbane Times